Saturday, May 28, 2016

PICNIC'S ARE ALWAYS IN STYLE! 5/29/16

A PICNIC is always the way to go when celebrating with a lot of people.     When I was a very small child I remember going on a picnic in Iowa.   I remember it was not a park.   It was not in town.   It was on the way to no where!   At least to my very young way of thinking.  I could have been the youngest child at the time.   We stopped, got out of the car, set up our lunch on the side of the road, with lots of tall green grass, trees and birds singing.   I don’t remember what we ate.  I don’t remember doing anything special.   But I do remember that my oldest brother Lisle, was there.
FUNNY how your mind works, isn’t it1   I have always been able to see that picnic, but that is all I remember.    As a young girl, living in California, we went on many picnics, with lots of food, always in a park, and when we would first get there, we would move from spot to spot until it was just the right spot for our family picnic.   My mother would make coffee, and why anyone would drink it, is beyond me.   She put the coffee in a cloth, and tie it up in a ball.   Put the ball in into the bottom of the large blue coffee pot, with white spots, and boiled it on the park stove.   It was a late morning, all afternoon, affair.   No one was in a hurry to go home!
FOOD was then a big part of the picnic, just as it is today.  Home fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans and cake.   There may have been other dishes but that is all of my favorites! The adults  sat around on blankets, while all the kids ran too and fro without a care in the world.
Sometimes there would be a soft ball game.   Some times just talking, and yelling at the kids!
WITH MY own little family, we would picnic, meeting  up with other family members at a park.   Good times are spent with family!   Good times are relaxing around the picnic table, wading in the river, kids chasing one another; and just being together.   I Can’t help it; but those were some of my favorite things to do.   I still like a picnic, but I am now one of those sitting around the table talking.
DID YOU KNOW that the feeding of the 5000 is the only miracle that can be found in all four Gospels?       I don’t know about you, but I believe that Jesus had a thing for great picnics.   In this story the picnic was held on the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee.  A spot two miles southeast of the Jordan entrance.    The time was the Passover.  One year before Jesus’ death!  This was a time, when many were on their way to Jerusalem.   But this year Jesus didn’t go to Jerusalem, because it was not yet time for Him.   He celebrated this Passover on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.    All the food that the Apostles had were five loaves and two fishes.  So Jesus planned a picnic!   He invited all that had been gathered around Him.   He gave the orders that the people sit down in groups of 50 and 100.   He fed five thousand men plus women and children that day!    And Jesus wasn’t wasteful! After everyone had their fill, He commanded that the twelve baskets of  left-overs be gathered up.   A divine principle for us to live by; “the more we give, the more we have left over!”
LATER ON Jesus had another picnic where He fed 4000 people!   Same menu with seven baskets left over.    You would have thought the disciples would have been used to Jesus’ miraculous ways.   But evidently not!   Not long after the second picnic Jesus overheard His disciples discussing food!   “They started discussing among themselves, about not having any bread.   Jesus responded saying; Why are you discussing about not having any bread?  Don’t you know or understand yet?  Are your minds so dull?  You have eyes, can’t you see?   You have ears, can’t you hear?  Don’t you remember when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand?    How many baskets of leftovers did you take up?    They answered “Twelve!”  Jesus said; And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand?’  “Seven!”   And you still don’t understand?”  Mark 8:16-21   Do you understand who Jesus is?      Jane Ann Crenshaw 5/24/16

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